About last night …

But a cliché you hear a lot as it pertains to winning hockey is “your best have to play like your best.”

Scott Gomez is not the best player on the Montreal Canadiens.

But he’s the highest-paid, so let’s modify the dictum slightly:

“The guy making the most money has to play like he’s earning it.”

You could make the argument this will never happen with Gomez. His cap hit is $7,357,143 – for this season and three more.

And they key to appreciating his game is ignoring the salary while you watch Gomez. He’s a great skater, a conscientious defensive centre (having come up in the New Jersey system) and, until this season, a creative playmaker.

But the season is still young. There are still 70 games for Scott Gomez to put his game together, and no reason for short-term panic.

But the Canadiens are in a mini-slump, and we’ll be removing the qualifier if Gomez doesn’t get going … and bring his old Devils teammate along with him.

Brian Gionta is fifth in the league with 47 shots on goal.

One has gone in, and the Captain may be facing the Confidence Crisis that can occur when a scorer stops scoring.

The first 10 games and the team’s 7-3-1 record may have elevated expectations beyond what they were when training camp began, i.e. “Let’s pray they make the playoffs, but let’s be realistic: they could finish 12th.”

It doesn’t make for a Montreal Canadiens fan’s realism to evaporate. Through October the team won consistently – until last night, the Canadiens hadn’t sustained consecutive Ls – without Andrei Markov and with an anemic power play.

Markov is back, and the Canadiens have not won since his return. A bad second period on Long Island Friday night was the harbinger of a worse 60 minutes against Florida and a butt-kicking in Columbus.

The Blue Jackets’ best played like their best: Former first-round draft choices Rick Nash and Derick Brassard had goals, the spectacular Jakub Voracek two assists.

The Canadiens had a 29-24 shot advantage, but the stat is misleading. Mathieu Garon, the latest Québécois goaltender to Jacques Plante them, saw everything, had good rebound control and was rarely under any sustained pressure. Through heir recent travails, the Canadiens haven’t been getting second chances to score.

The goaltender at the other end was pretty good. Some of the Commentariat have criticized Carey Price’spositioning on the third Columbus goal, but certainly Nash’s laser would have beaten any goaltender in the league (cue 25 Comments claiming Jaro Halak would have stopped it), and the Brassard goal was a power-play tic-tac-toe after a defensive breakdown that started with Josh Gorges bumping into Brian Gionta.

It was imperative for Carey Price to start the season well. He did, and the team played a solid defensive system that limited opposition’s shots-on-goal.

That element of the Canadiens’ game remains intact. Columbus’s 24 shots is not the kind of 40-plus bombardment Price and Halak routinely faced last season.

There are other positives going forward:

Jeff Halpern’s line, with Benoit Pouliot and Mathieu Darche might have been the Canadiens’ best last night. Tomas Plekanec’s line wasn’t, but whomever he centres is going to get scoring chances. Pleks is that good.

Jacques Martin juggled his lines in the third period, and it seemed to pay dividends; though you could argue Columbus had the game won at that point and was easing off the throttle.

Andrei Kostitsyn played well with Gomez and Gionta. Lars Eller did not look out of place with Plekanec and Cammalleri.

Jacques Martin might be too conservative to change his top two lines for Friday’s game in Buffalo. But the Travis Moen experiment ought to be terminated, and something has to be done to get G&G untracked.

The interesting personnel moves will come on D. Roman Hamrlik and Jaro Spacek looked old and slow – as did Hal Gill – against skilled, speedy 20somethings like Brassard and Voracek. There were indications, heading into Columbus, that Spatch would sit out; but the coach had a game-day change of heart.

Maybe we’ll see Alexandre Picard against the Sabres. A shakeup of the pairing wouldn’t hurt, and it might help.

There were some moments last night when we were treated to vintage Markov. A couple times he swooped in from the left point on the power play, only to shoot wide or high on opportunities he usually buries.

The team’s best player – with an asterisk, the way Pleks is earning his money – will get better as Markov plays more games.

And the power play, which is currently the NHL’s worst, has to improve, right?

The Canadiens have too much talent for the PP to be this crappy. But do they have the talent to correct two notable power-play shortcomings: no Franzenesque net presence and, in the otherwise spectacular P.K. Subban, a scatter-gun shot from the right point that the kid telegraphs with his wind-up every time.

The Blue Jackets blocked 24 shots (to eight for the Canadiens), which tells me the Canadiens were kept to the perimeter and firing into a sea of sticks, with predictable futility.

Anyway, that was the last visit to Columbus until the 2012-13 season …. by which time there may not be a franchise there.

• • •

Will the team be as good as it was in October?.

The schedule continues to favour the Canadiens because Buffalo and Ottawa are not Washington and Philadelphia.

The back-to-back set at the end of the week will be a test of whether the Canadiens can recapture the mojo of their fast start – or, let’s be honest, continue to play like the team many fans dreaded before the puck dropped in Toronto on Oct. 7.

I don´t know. Breaking up the first line is one thing but why put Kostitsyn on the second line instead of Cammalleri? Kostitsyn had to play LW (I know, he has before but I think he´s better on the right) with Gomez and Gionta, Cammalleri is a LW…

Gomez will look good playing in a Hamilton jersey against the likes of Redden and Souray, other ex-NHLers who are perhaps good enough to still play in the NHL, but no longer worthy of the cap hit they represent. It’s time to end the Gomez experiment, he’s a boat anchor because of his salary. Surely we have a kid in Hamilton that can muster 1 goal and two assists per 12 games, not take as many stupid penalties, perhaps get Gionta going and best of all, free up 3.5 million bucks to get someone that can actually score a goal or two. Eat the salary and free up the space already!

Timo, you are exactly correct. If the expectation was that he score as much as Pyratt, or Lapierre say, then we would all be simply wondering why he is paid so much. There is no provision under the CBA for him to decline or renegotiate his pay lower. What is, is. He is too small to bull his way into the crease and stay there. His ability is to move the puck fast and find the guy in scoring position. So he is either not playing to his ability or some people are not in scoring position. Love Gionta but he’s not burying them. And the other wing of the moment isn’t either.

I think we’re all too hard on Gomez. I think on several teams he would be doing great. If the Canadiens had big, lumbering wingers who crashed to the net Gomez would be racking up the points. Right now everyone wants to play cute, dipsy doodle around, and play on the perimeter. You don’t much score from there. The first goals, the big goals, usually come from hard work in close. That opens the ice for the cutsy plays. Close games…well cute doesn’t cut it.

I really like the new-&-improved (and still at the low-low-price of free) morning-after “About Last Night.”

Now that Mr. Boone has come out of the closet as an open–but not quite flamboyant–Gomez-basher, the specific question can be asked: what are actually asking him to do? “Get better?” Gee, that’s not too helpful. Gomez wants Gomez to get better more than you want Gomez to get better. Doesn’t it ‘click’ that since Gionta has so many shots this year that he’s getting them from Gomez? He ain’t getting ’em from Moen, that’s for sure. A poster today points out that Gomez is the type of player that excells when a scorer (Gionta) finishes, and another player rounds out (Elias).

My answer is actually put in terms of Hall Gill. Read all the posts today bashing Gill for being too old/slow/incompetant. Now go back last year and find EXACTLY the same posts about Gill. Then go to the posts during the playoffs last year and find one beautiful comment here that sticks in my mind: “At the start of the season I worried whenever Gill was on the ice. Now I worry whenever Gill is not on the ice.”

In other words, we panic like hens here whenever things aren’t going immediately well. We need — and the sportwriter should give ballast here — balance, rationality, and much longer perpective. Gomez–like Gio, Gill & Cammi — will be very fine for us in the final analysis, just like last year. (And Gomez contract is irrelevant — merely a handy and simplistic stick to beat a ready target with…)

“….it is entirely possible to argue genuine differences of policy and values with conviction and passion while avoiding personal insult.” Ed Broadbent.

This site blows me away…..Don’t criticize Jebus Price but slam all the other players “4th floor “!Last nights loss was a team affair,period!Carey Price can make the flashest,prettiest saves ever but if we lose ,it’s for show and NO GO!Besides ,Carey’s got to start to stay square with his post “Man he goes wide!”And as for the rest …no surprise here “the D is weak and our forwards are too small!” …It’s nice to see we addressed this issues in the off season???

So do any of you see a play-off Stanley Cup winner here or is there another 5 year plan a comming?

It’s easy to understand what’s happening: almost all of our offense this year have came from either Plekanec or Kostitsyn. They spend two games without scoring and the rest of the team can’t come up with more than one goal!

Gomez, Gionta and Cammalleri have to start producing soon if we want to have a good season because those two players aren’t good enough to carry the team on their own!

It’s going to take some time for the overpaid, under-achieving contracts to work their way through the system. Hal Gill is finally being recognized as too slow while Spacek and Hamrlik have clearly seen their skill diminish. We can afford to have one of those guys on the roster, but not all three.

I am sure history will look back on the Gomez trade as a blunder. If he was high priced but contributing or low priced and not contributing it would be palatable. He and his play are the worst of both worlds. Looking back at old Ranger blogs, it was the same thing. The cry of the day was that Gomez needed better wingers to be effective. Clearly they weren’t happy with his play. How did our management miss that?

I have been watching the Gomez line closely the past couple of games and Gomez hasn’t been the biggest problem. Let’s face it last year gomez didn’t score much and he isn’t paid to score, he’s paid to create. I think the problem has been gionta, he has had scoring chances as his 47 shots show just hasn’t scored. Its easy to blame gomez but i think the 2 problems are the wingers. First off Gionta recently has looked off, he’s missing open nets and isn’t getting to the open spaces. In my opinion he was the worst player on that line last night, he stays to the outside and never breaks away from coverage. Gomez tries to get him the puck but he just isn’t open.

The other problem is the other winger, other teams know exactly where gomez is going and its easy to cover 1 man. Finally Martin woke up last night and moved Kostitsyn to that line and they had some chances. It gave room to Gionta and gave Gomez another passing option. They need a scoring winger and I’m still confused as to why Pouliot is not on that line? They had such good chemistry last year and at one point they were our best line. He is a big body and has a great scoring touch. Martin has to just settle down and let them find their game together.

Finally I’ve had enough of Martin and his line switching, he has a good system but no patience to let guys gel together. The main reason that line isn’t scoring is him, wake up put pouliot on the line and let them go. It might take a couple of games but they will get going and they will score.

Judging by last years playoffs I think it is obvious that Habs are just the ultimate spoiler team. How often do the Habs play a bottom dwelling team (Not saying Columbus is a bottom dweller btw) that they should dismantle only to be embarrassed? It seems like whenever they play against a team like the Penguins or any upper tier team we really show up and steal the show. Strange little thing I’ve noticed and I’m sure other’s have as well.

I get the impression now that Markovs back, everyone kind of feels someone else is going to do their job for them so to speak. No one would admit it… But when you have a player of Markov’s talent come back to the line up, folks tend to think things are going to be a little easier… More will happen. Heck, fans have been saying it for the last month or so, “once Markov’s gets back, XYZ will get better”.

If players think like this, then consequently make one less hit, one less blocked shot, win one less battle… It adds up. Hopefully last nights loss will restore a sense of urgency.

I am an admitted Gomez contract/deal basher…Gomez not so much. I posted this last night after the game but Gomez I thought actually played well….desptie waht everyone else said. I thought he looked like he cared and he developed instant chemistry with AK46. Gomez is a very simple player, he is a defensive mind, puck carrier and distributor. He is very quick and does have very good vision. Players playing against him know he will not shoot though…he stickhandles side to side and is never a threat to shoot….this right away puts him at a disadvantage…fortunately he has demonstrated he is stilla good enough passer to get the job done over his career. The problem of him basically having two options…left or right is his own doing and it doesn;t appear is going to change. The two options? that is on us….if we are going to play to his strengths then I believe it is Gomez…not Pleks…who is capableof crating his own space and shots…taht needs two scroing wingers. If you look at Gomez’ career his best seasons came when he had Elias and Gio, when he played with us his best results were when he played with Cammi and Gio or when POuiot was hot. The common thread …two options. Becaause he is not a threat to shoot…and he essentially has Brian Gionta to pass to…..he will not be efffective offensively. He stil does other things well…..but he NEEDS two options….

I really liked putting Eller with Pleks and Cammi for a while. Breaking up our top line? I really don;t think it matters becasue Pleks has the ability to play well with anyone with talent and Cammi and Eller would be plenty. I liked that experiment and would like to see more of it. Of course Eller with Gio and Gomez could work too.

Frustrating again to watch this squad, never knowing what version will show up for a game. I thought we’d have an easier time with teams like Fla and Columbus but our boys continue to surprise me. What happens when we face Philly or Boston? I don’t even want to think about it. We’re back to the same struggles, offense can’t score, defense can’t clear the zone and we all know how that scenario ends.

Well, if they keep losing, it will please the commentariat here. I have the impression postings dropped really low when there were positives to say, and failure will be fun for Newfie dog and the apuckolypse crowd. It won’t be very readable, but it’ll be bulky…

The real team is somewhere between the heady days at the start, and the current offensive drought.

What you see is what you get. If Habs are firing on all cylinders they are a top 5 team in the league. When they play gutless and heartless like last night, they resemble the worst team in the league.
A middle of the pack team with playoff aspirations is all they are. After waiting many years to see improvement, it’s the same old 1 step forward, two steps back.
To play in late April, the team has to win every month. Thus far, November is not much to write about.

The issues I have is once a Habs signs or honours a fat contract, their
play diminishes substantially, such as Gomez, Gionta, Plekanec, Spacek to name a few.

We have a healthy lineup with Markov the so called saviour back and we can’t get the easy W’s or play dominating 60 minutes of hockey.

Those NHL forecasters are right, we will end up in 8th if not 9th in the East. We are just too small up front and need some physical DMan who will play physical in our crease to protect our goalie whether it be Auld or Price.

Sad how this team was built last season when Bobby pushed the panic button and signed players who are not even worthy to be on a top line or top 2 DMen on any other NHL club.

Truly love these posts that says gainey pressed the panic but yet never provide any proof or post an alternative. He brings in the top point getter in the ufa crop in cammy,the 4th top producer in gionta,spacek had 2 previous very good seasons in buffalo(but he has been terrible here),gill was a playoff hero for the pens and i guess you forgot what he did for us. The gomez contract sucks,but hey he tried hard for vinny twice and was willing to part with price to get him. Gainey gambled on reuniting gionta and gomez who had the best seasons when paired with each other. All to a city which has had a terrible reputation at luring free agents. Before gainey apparently “pushed the panic button” we had 10 players under contract for just over 20 million dollars and only a couple of rfa’s to sign. We had less then half a roster signed,how did you figure we would fill those other 12 or so spots? With bull dogs? Newsflash,there is this thing called a cap floor of about 40 million dollars which has to be reached or you forfeit hockey games. Twelve bulldog players will make up about 8 million and that’s being generous.That still leaves another 12 million that has to be spent in order to not forfeit games. BTW the only realistic ufa center available 2 years ago was antropov. Feel free to post your alternative to filling 10 roster spots without spending money on quality ufa’s and making the cap floor. Oh,and making the playoffs and going to the ecf in the process.

Our most pressing problem at the moment is to get the powerplay rolling. To have a chance of winning, we need to be scoring regularly with the man advantage, since most games are likely to be close. A good powerplay, even if it doesn’t score, can swing momentum and give the team a shot in the arm. At the moment, nothing is happening on the powerplay, or less than nothing when we give up a short-handed goal. I thought we started the game well last night, but our first futile powerplay literally sucked the life out of the team, and the second was worse. Suddenly we had less energy, passes were off the mark or in the skates, the Jackets were beating us to the puck and along the boards.

The last few seasons have shown that we need the big point shot for the powerplay to be successful. At the moment we don’t have it and I don’t see anyone on the team who can provide it. Subban is trying, but his shots either miss the net or hit the goaltender square in the chest. Switching Markov to the other side was tried without success a couple of years ago. I think we need to do something before many more games have gone by – give Yannick Weber a chance or, if that doesn’t work, bring back Bergeron.

Something else I’d like to see the guys try is to shoot from the point but slightly wide and with a bit less mustard on it so a big body parked by the net could deflect it in.

Pretty sure the Canadiens would do pretty well against PIT and WSH actually, those are games you can count the Habs to get up for, they’ve taken Non-Conference, Non-Division games too softly for a while. Waiting too long to throw it all in there to try and turn out the win. They need to want to win each game. Not seeing that right now.

I agree completely. It seems like the team doesn’t play as well when they are on the road, in non hockey markets. I’m thinking Florida, Tampa, Columbus, Nashville, etc. I’m sure there are stats to prove this correct.

What’s Retromonkey right about? When Gionta signed his “big” contract with the Habs, he led the team in scoring.. when Pleks signed his “big” contract this summer, he came out and had a wicked good October.. When Gomez was traded to the Habs to “honour” his contract, he led the team in assists.. What more are these guys supposed to do?

So the G&G line has had a slow start, it’s not due to lack of effort or talent, the bounces just aren’t happening yet – key word being *yet*. They’re due to break out of this slump and resume what they did last season, no need to give negative “fans” any attention based on their past ho-hum comments.

Just a side note, did anyone notice that Halak recorded his third shutout of the season already. He has seven wins and three of them are shutouts. Please don’t take it wrong I think Carey is doing really well this season. Just was interested in how Halak would fair with the Blues. So far both Carey and Jaro are proving their number one status. PG must be scratching his head, thinking he should have gotten more for Halak. I’m sure PG and the Habs organization wishes Halak all best, after all the organization is a class act and doesn’t wish anyone any harm, but I don’t think PG thought Halak would be doing this well in a Blues uniform.